"The Wedding Night" (1935)

[feaito]

Yesterday I re-watched “The Wedding Night” (1935), this time with my wife who had never seen it before. For me it was like watching it all over again for the first time. I think that this happens with great pictures, like this one. She also loved the film and I felt so gratified by that, because sadly this type of quiet, sensitive films is not the kind of film which you can watch with anybody and can be fully appreciated as it should be.

I’m a fan of “the Gary Cooper” of the late ‘20s and 1930s, in my opinion some his best films were made around this time, before his definitive screen persona was established, especially in the early thirties. He gives a sensitive, balanced, nuanced, performance in a film that looks like a slice of life. His character is so unarchetypical, so honestly portrayed by him, that you get immersed totally in this beautiful love story. And this is no by chance, because the film was directed by the masterful King Vidor.

Praise must also go to the two actresses that vividly portray the two women in Cooper’s life: the unjustly forgotten and underrated Russian actress Anna Sten and the equally unfairly forgotten actress Helen Vinson. Miss Vinson portrays without falling in the caricature, a shallow, but at the same time likable society woman, who thinks that life is a never-ending party and does not take marriage as seriously as it should be taken, realizing it too late. Miss Sten plays the naïve but strong-willed Polish woman who reluctantly at first, begins to fall for the writer potrayed by Cooper. The scene in which Cooper reads to her the first chapters of the new (autobiographical) book he is writing, is most telling in this aspect; because Miss Sten does not fall for the dashing, tall, handsome Cooper, but for his character’s sensitiviness, feelings and emotions which she apprehends by means of this book in progress.

In short, none of the three principals of this story incur in stereotypical portrayals, which helped me to connect with their characters’ emotions, with its virtues and flaws.

A wonderful experience, which with no doubt I’ll repeat in the future, because this film deserves many viewings and is just my kind of film; a simple love story, unpretentiously directed, that does not aim at oversentimentality and does not fall into the maudlin which can ruin a movie, with superb, unaffected performances by the leads.

[MissGoddess]

What a loving analysis, Feo! You make me want to watch it again even though it makes me cry every time at the end. It is a very different movie from what you think it will be at the beginning. You think perhaps we will be presented with "stock" characters, that Gary will be sincere and unaffected, Vinson will be viperish and Sten the typical "good girl", but it is much more than that, much better. Thank you for calling attention to Vidor's sensitive handling of the material.

[feaito]

I'm glad to read about your fondness for this film April. Well it shouldn't surprise me since your quite keen on Coop

My brother gave me the DVD edition of this film as a (very) belated birthday gift the other day and I was so happy, because I only had the VHS of it, and upon knowing it had been released on DVD, I had immediately put it in my wish list.

I've become quite interested in Anna Sten's career and luckily I have also on DVD "We Live Again" (1934), another sensitive story in which she stars opposite Fredric March and "So Ends Our Night" (1941) in which she plays a supporting role. Last monday I saw her in a nasty role in the 1940 film "The Man I Married". I remember seeing in public TV, during the 1980s, her first Hollywood film "Nana" (1933), but it's sadly unavailable and to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been aired in these years.

BTW, what a beautiful still from the film you posted.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Feo, I think the only other Anna Sten movie I've seen is So Ends Our Night , which iis a favorite of mine. I was really struck by how moving that film was when I saw it just this past year.

[feaito]

Some company should release a Boxed set of Anti-Facist films and include "So Ends Our Night" (1941), "The Mortal Storm" (1940), "Blockade" (1938), "The Man I Married" (1940), "Hitler's Children" (1943) et al.

And I agree "So Ends Our Night" is a true discovery. I was particularly impressed by Frances Dee and Glenn Ford in this film, notwithstanding Maggie Sullavan's and Fredric March's oustanding performances.

[MissGoddess]

And I agree "So Ends Our Night" is a true discovery. I was particularly impressed by Frances Dee and Glenn Ford in this film, notwithstanding Maggie Sullavan's and Fredric March's oustanding performances.

Me too! I was quite taken with Glenn Ford's touchingly vulnerable character. He looked so young! I really like Frances Dee. I got to see her recently on the big screen in I Walked with a Zombie.

[feaito]

I havent' seen that one, but Frances Dee ought to be rediscovered as the great actress she was. She's mostly remembered for her role in the 1933 version of "Little Women", but has accomplished other noteworthy performances, like in the Pre-Codes "Blood Money" (1933) (which I haven't seen) and "Of Human Bondage" (1934); "The Gay Deception" (1935) -a small gem; and "If I Were King" (1938).